Can someone ID this starfish hitchhiker.

[enutees]

Here is a starfish that showed up today. Not great at the pics yet but hopefully someone can tell me what it is.

It is about the size of a dime.

 

[Sk8r]

Could be an asterina. If so it eats coralline and corals. And they are irregular in shape, always seemingly lacking one or two legs. But dime sized would be a biiiig asterina. I'm not sure they get that large.

 

[enutees]

I wish I would have caught him. Next time I find him he goes to the sump.

 

[gunslingerone9]

also they propagate by fission, if you have a large population the would make a good food source for harlequin shrimp. so putting him in your sump is not a bad idea.

 

[venwu225]

not all asterina sp. eat corals right? I mean there are reports of coral eatting asterina sp, but others are model fauna in our reefs?
how do we even distinguish which is which?

 

[romunov]

Bull biscuits. Not even experts can tell "coral eating asterinas" and "good asterinas" apart.
Your starfish is fine. If you see it eat corals - remove it. Otherwise enjoy the diversity.